His lady wasn’t asking. Max grinned and pulled back. She moved up with him and took the lead in ripping off his sweater. She wanted to undress him, but he wanted to undress her, too. “One for one until there’s nothing left,” he said as he pushed forward and pulled her coat off in one swift motion. Ava had more layers on, but that didn’t matter. He would unwrap her nice and slow, torturing them both in the process.
Ava went for Max’s jeans next. She purposely gripped his hard-on as she did. He was so ready. That touch, although fleeting, made him hungrier. He could feel his wolf below the surface. He was growling, but Ava didn’t mind. It was a contented sound in this moment.
Max pulled off Ava’s sweater and brushed his fingers against her breasts when he did. She hadn’t bothered wearing a bra. She was small enough and her sweater was so large, that no one would have noticed. He drew a moan from her lips as he circled her nipples, drawing them up into hard points. “Max,” she breathed.
“You’re next,” he said as he suddenly drew his hands away.
Ava’s hands were on his briefs. She teased by moving them far enough to barely free his rock-hard cock. She ran her fingers down his shaft, and he shuddered. It took all of his willpower to follow her movements and assist her in bearing him before her, completely naked for her.
“Now you,” she said.
Max pressed her down into the bed with his lips on hers. He worked his fingers around her pants at the same time. He wasn’t going to take the rest slow. He couldn’t wait much longer. He grabbed her underwear at the same time and brushed his fingers along her slit. She yelped as he did and pressed her fingers into his back. He managed to discard the rest of her clothes, and then her hands slid down his chest, his stomach, and to his erection. She wrapped her hands around him. He rolled his eyes closed to let the sensation wash over him.
“I want to see,” Ava said.
Max raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure what she meant by that. He eased back until they were both sitting in front of each other. Her eyes were transfixed on his length in her hands. He couldn’t stop the shivers from breaking out all over his body. God, if she kept touching him like this, he was going to come all over her, but he really didn’t want to do that. He wanted to finish inside of her. Inside of her. He did that when he claimed her. He wasn’t even thinking about condoms or getting her pregnant. He was too worried about making sure she wanted to be with him at all. Shit.
“Ava,” he managed to grit out her name through the distraction of her hands on his cock. Oh, this was bad. He needed to say something now before he couldn’t stop his need for her from manifesting. “I didn’t… Last time, when I claimed you, I didn’t think about the possibility of getting you pregnant.”
Ava shook her head. “Stop. Me and you, nothing else. Me and you.”
“This is kind of important.” She brushed her fingers along his shaft again, feeling up his balls and then down to the swollen head of his cock. “Oh, God,” he moaned.
“Do you like this, too?” she asked as she wrapped both hands around him and rubbed him up.
“Yes,” he whispered.
“Show me what to do to make you feel good.”
“God, Ava, you’re already making me feel beyond good.” He shook his head. “Pregnant.” He panted. “If we do this, I could get you pregnant. I could have already…”
She gave him a hungry look. “You don’t want to?”
Hell yeah, he wanted to, but was that too much too soon? They had already moved so fast. His head was spinning.
Ava let go of his cock. He wanted to beg to have her hands around him again, but her fingers glided across the Lunas Sigil on his right inner thigh. Lunas coursed through him with an unbearable energy. Every time she touched him here, if he had any doubts about her, they would have been washed away with this feeling. This knowledge of how they fit together perfectly. They were made for each other and nothing would change that.
“Please,” he begged. “Too much, Ava. I’m going to spill everything right here and now if you don’t stop.”
“Then come inside of me,” She said with a wicked smile.
She gripped the back of his neck and kissed him. He grabbed her back and eased her down onto the bed, taking his position on top of her. She urged him down so they were touching. He moved so their hips were aligned as he continued to hold himself up with his forearms. He didn’t want to crush her. The moment the tip of his cock brushed her wet and swollen sex, he moved. He rubbed against her, teasing her clit, making sure she’d be good and ready when he moved inside her.
Ava started whimpering and struggling underneath him as he kept up the shallow, teasing motion. Her hands were gripping his back hard.
“Are you ready for me?” he asked.
“Always.” She spread her legs wider and bent her knees, allowing him better access.
Max grinned at that. He moved down her slit and dipped inside of her with a shallow thrust. She was ridiculously tight, so he kept up his shallow thrusts, easing farther inside of her each time. She was moaning in rhythm with his movements.
“Faster, harder,” she pleaded.
She was ready. With his next thrust, Max buried himself to the hilt. Ava gasped, and she pulsed around him. Not yet. Max gritted his teeth against the need to come inside of her. He was holding himself back by sheer willpower alone.
“More!” Ava screamed.
Max pounded into her again and again, harder and faster until finally she came. He froze inside of her and shouted a moment later as his seed shot out hot and filled her. He rode her waves of pleasure as he began to move again, spilling everything he could, filling her until his seed was spilling out of her. His mate. His love.
When both of them were spent, Max stayed still. He continued to hold himself above her, and he didn’t leave her. He wanted to stay joined to her for as long as possible. His arms were shaking from the crazy after-buzz, but he wanted this moment to look into Ava’s beautiful eyes, to watch her mouth partly opened, and hear her exhausted pants. He reached down to capture her lips in his again when her breathing was less labored. This was a soft kiss, a kiss to pour all his love.
“One more time,” she murmured against his lips.
“I don’t know if I have one more time,” he replied with a chuckle. “I’ve got crazy vitality because I’m a wolf shifter, but I dunno.”
She ran her hands down his body, digging her bandaged fingers lightly into his skin and making him shudder. He pulled out of her and held himself a little higher above her. She reached down to his spent cock, touching him with that magical touch of hers. He let out a deep groan. His Lunas Sigil burned at the same time. The combination made his cock slowly spring back to life. He hadn’t had sex since his wolf emerged, but he wasn’t entirely convinced this reaction was because of his wolf alone. Maybe it was a mated thing, maybe it was his body reacting to his mate’s needs. She wanted him again right this moment. So he stopped questioning it.
She smiled as she worked his thick cock in her hands. Then she gripped his lower waist and tentatively bucked against him. “One more time,” she repeated.
“I’m still tired as hell,” Max replied. “So, if you want to do this again, you gotta run the show.” Okay, that was kind of a lie, but he wanted her to ride him. It was her turn for complete control. It turned him on like nothing else when she took command.
“Roll over, sexy wolf,” she whispered.
Max flipped their positions quickly. He laid back on the bed, propped his head up with a few pillows, and Ava settled down on the hard ridges of his stomach. She spent a moment rubbing against him, pleasuring herself by stimulating her clit with the motion. It was hot, erotic. Max couldn’t look away from her half-closed eyes and slightly open mouth. She was the sexiest woman he had ever laid eyes on, and seeing her like this made him proud. It was his honor to be the one to wring this kind of pleasure out of her. Just watching her like this made him harder by the second. Ava rose and positioned herself over h
is erection. She started rubbing again, holding herself just above him so the tip of his cock was the only thing touching her, torturing them both.
“So wet,” Max said, gritting his teeth. “I don’t know how you do this to me, angel.”
She gave him a sexy smile as she eased down on his cock, burying him deep, deep, deep. He shouted her name as she rode him. She joined him as Lunas sparked through his body. He was sure it was sparking through hers at the same time. His Lunas Sigil burned a tiny bit hotter than the rest of him, but all of the energy went into his cock. Ava was relentless with how she moved, buried so deep that she was rubbing again his stomach each time she lurched forward. Max was through. He came hard, another explosion of heat as he once again gave Ava everything he was. He felt the hot liquid leak out between them. There was only so much Ava could hold, and he had already filled her up twice. He thrust up to meet her because she was still riding him, determined to feel out and enjoy every ounce of pleasure they could get from each other.
Max followed Ava’s pace. When she started to slow, so did he, until they stopped. She stayed in place as she reached up to kiss him. He met her lips, welcoming them. She curled into him, lying on his chest with him still buried deep.
“Don’t move. I want to stay like this as long as possible,” she said. “Stay inside me, Max.”
He liked being inside of her just as much or more than she did, but he didn’t like the desperate tone of her voice. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said as he ran a hand through her shaved hair. “Is something wrong?”
“No!” she exclaimed. “This… I’ve never felt better. Nothing has ever felt so right.” She reached up to kiss him again. “This is love, the abstract concept I never understood before. I love you so much, Max. I hope you put a baby in me. A baby would be another piece of you for me to keep, and I can’t think of anything better.” She bit her lip, nervousness starting to show. “Not that I know anything about being a mom, and I’d probably be really terrible at it.” She blinked hard and fast. “But you’d be there. It would work out.”
Max blinked happy tears away and laughed. “I’d like that too, a baby that looks like you, and you bet we’d make it work. Together we could figure out a baby.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Definitely a two-person job.” He had always wanted kids in the future, but that future always seemed far off. Now it didn’t. “I love you, too,” he said as he brushed his fingers across her cheek. Then he moved his hands down to cup her small ass, kneading her flesh. She arched her back but stayed where she was.
“You’ll be with me tomorrow, right?” she asked him as she traced circles on his chest and around his right nipple.
“Of course. I can’t fight for you if I’m not there.” He moved his hands to her lower back, massaging out the tension in her muscles.
“Hold me.”
Max rolled them onto their sides and Ava snuggled into his chest, her nose brushing between his pecs as she closed her eyes. They stopped their fears for the night, agreeing to get lost in each other, but morning would come too soon. Max held Ava like he would never get the chance to again, and he swore to always treat her that way. She was the most precious thing in the world.
Chapter 18
THE SEPARATION FROM MAX was unbearable. He was in the same room as Ava, but he wasn’t allowed to sit by her. He couldn’t touch her and reassure her with his warmth, with the spark of magic that passed between the two of them through the Moon. She was sitting on a cold metal chair in front of everyone, facing them for the moment. The familiar faces of shifters in the room were her only comfort—Max offering the most comfort out of everyone. Blue Pack had been good to Ava, and they continued to be, but Max loved her. She could see the pain and torture in his eyes, matching hers. The distance between them was so short. They bridged it with the looks they exchanged, but they couldn’t close the gap physically until the trial was over. Maybe not even after that.
Ava shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. This room was the most impersonal out of the rooms she had glimpsed inside of Trinity Headquarters. Their suite used wood along with the cold metal to make it more inviting, but this room was meant to be cold. There weren’t any windows, so it didn’t have the added benefit of natural light. It was all hard edges and artificial lights. It was a courtroom of some sort. There was a podium behind her that she would have to face as soon as the Celestial Alphas arrived.
What would the Celestial Alphas decide? Ava scanned the room again, starting with Max, her mate, her love. He would fight for her freedom. He would do anything to protect her. Nick had vowed to watch over her too, his mate Gwen, Willow, and Derek. They were all warm wolves. Kind. She felt safe with them, but there was one shifter here from Moonwatch she wasn’t sure about. Cedric. She heard he wanted to help, but she avoided him since they got on the jet to fly here. But there was something different about him now. He wasn’t looking at her and casting judgment with the golden-eyed stare of his bird. His eyes were hazel. He caught her observing him as she looked over the room and gave a slight nod of his head. Somehow, it was reassuring.
Ava looked back at her mate. She said she wanted to atone for everything she had done. That was true, but she wanted to be able to return to Max in the end. He was her everything. As long as he was waiting for her, she could make it through this.
Ava jumped when the metal door located in front of her, and to everyone else’s back, clicked open. She had been waiting for it, expecting the Celestial Alphas, but now that it was happening, she wanted to fidget with her fingers. She wanted to dig into her fingertips and bleed. Distract. Feel or not feel. She wasn’t sure anymore. She took a calming breath, forced her hands into her lap, and willed herself to stay strong for Max. If she couldn’t do it for herself, she could do it for him.
Bruiser held the door open for the Celestial Alphas as they entered the room one at a time. The first to enter the room was a woman with the perfect hourglass-shape, similar to Willow. Unlike Willow, she was much more petite, thinner bones, fingers so fine they would snap like twigs. She was elegant. The heels of her close-toed dress shoes guiding the sway of her hips. Her skin was flawless and fair. Her red hair was tied up into a bun, aside from her bangs, and she wore horn-rimmed glasses that matched the plum color of her tailored skirt and jacket. Ava wasn’t sure if it was a fashion statement or if she needed them. She had yet to meet a shifter who needed glasses. Her coiffed bangs concealed most of her forehead.
The second to enter the room was a woman built much like Ava. She was petite, thin boned. Her skin was fair as well with a perfect dusting of freckles on her face. Her brown hair was cut into a bob. Her big green eyes were the focal point of her face next to the soft smile on her plump lips. She wore a tailored skirt and jacket like the first, but they were a modest tan color, and she wore flats instead of heels. She held out her hand for a big man coming in from behind her. His hand totally eclipsed hers. He was big like Bruiser, brown skin, and short black hair. His eyes were dark, too. He was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, ridiculously casual for the occasion. His muscles pressed against the thin fabric of his t-shirt, outlining the hard ridges of his torso for all to see.
Ava thought that was it, but there was still one more shifter who walked in. He was wearing a black suit, and he was what Ava could only describe as kingly. He held his head high like he owned the world. His physique was just as impressive as the other man’s, but he was somehow more streamlined and graceful. His skin was dark with nearly buzzed to the scalp textured hair and sharp eyes to match. He was the first to look Ava’s way. His eyes shimmered and sizzled with an instant of blinding brightness. Ava blinked hard to clear the brightness from her vision, but it left spots like any time she had accidentally gotten too close to looking directly at the sun.
The woman in the plum colored skirt and jacket was the first to reach the podium. The petite woman with big green eyes and the giant man holding her hand held up the kingly man when the petite woman reached up on her tiptoes and h
er giant man bent down to kiss her lips in the fastest kiss Ava had ever seen. The fragile woman and the gentle giant. Ava understood why they cut their kiss short when the kingly man behind them rolled his eyes in irritation.
Ava badly wanted to kiss Max. She looked at her mate. He and everyone else were watching these shifters, but he somehow felt her eyes, because he looked her way and then held her gaze. Ava gave him the smallest of smiles, and he graced her with a smile in return, settling her nerves.
The man dressed in casual clothes took a seat at the back of the room while his petite lady and the kingly man took their seats behind the podium.
“Stand and face us so we can get started,” the woman in the plum colored suit announced.
Ava did as she was told. She stood, turned around to face the Celestial Alphas, and clasped her hands in front of her to keep from fidgeting. She didn’t know what she had expected them to be like, but she certainly hadn’t expected one so frail looking and petite as the green-eyed woman to qualify. In fact, they all seemed quite young to be these wise Celestial Alphas. But Ava knew a little about that. The Circle got a good hit on Trinity about twelve years ago. Beatrice said something about it once, but she didn’t know details. Whatever happened, it hadn’t crippled Trinity, so Beatrice still had the shifter alliance and the Circle to worry about—which was all she cared about.
“Introductions,” the curvy woman continued, all business like her attire suggested. “I am Viktoriya Petrov, Moon Alpha.” Her voice carried the slightest hint of a Russian accent.
“Rei Takeuchi,” the green-eyed one said as she raised her hand. “Earth Alpha.” She also had an accent, though hers was thicker. Japanese.
“I am Samson Read,” the kingly man said with a slight tilt of his chin maybe to show off his station or his ridiculously strong jaw. “Sun Alpha.” If Samson had an accent, it wasn’t one Ava could detect. He probably grew up somewhere in the United States she figured—unlike the other two.
Her Wild Wolf (Marked By The Moon Book 3) Page 19
